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1. Edition of 1482 as pdf.file
... said to be the oldest edition of many which followed ("Insgesamt sind 50 weitere Auflagen in italienischer, französischer, spanischer, flämischer und englischer Sprache bis einschließlich 1698 bekannt."

??? the names S. Louis, Ladislaus and Robert somehow point to Naples ??? The whole (1st edition) is printed in Perugia and Spirito fought earlier for Piccinino ... the printer are Germans

... ...

I started to become interested ... the reader is fooled by the test. I didn't understand all, but there are some jokes in it.

I can't say, which version Sotzmann saw, but it was already changed. And I'm not sure, if the 1482 edition is the original ... but at least in some parts it's "original", even if modified from an earlier edition. The author signed it in his own ways.

This is the start initial ... we discover a bird, probably indicating a matter of love.

... and then comes the impressum after some opening text ...

The follows the page with the wheel graphic (already linked above)

Then follow on the next pages 20 Kings and they're arranged in pairs and often it's recognizable, why they are pairs. Possibly the author wished, that they should be seen as groups of 4, but I'm not sure about it.
Each pair has a picture, for instance David-Salomo, the first:

As group of 4 they look this way:

Well, that are 10 pairs, and the year is 1482 and the Boiardo Tarocchi poem with 22 special cards (probably 1487) isn't written and the Sola-Busca Tarocchi with 22 special cards (1491) doesn't exist, and both Trionfi card products use 10 pairs as trump, connecting 1-2, 3-4 etc. ... as Spirito did in his oracle book. That's almost the same structure. But Spirito in the contrary to Boiardo and Sola-Busca doesn't show a sign, that he in some way used the 22 by an including pair 0-21, he used the number 20.
Probably he wasn't informed, that in Bologna a mass-production of Trionfi card production was already running since 1439 or so ... nobody had told him, otherwise ...
So: no confirmation, that a 22 + 56-structure existed, but a confirmation, that a 20 + 56 - structure existed, at least in 1482 (perhaps even a little earlier).

20 Kings and each king is ascribed to a specific sign. "Re David ... Va al segno de la luna" "King David ... go to the sign of the moon"

At the sign of the Moon,. which has a full page .... but first one may note, that the editor spares woodcuts ... there are 20 kings, but only 5 different kings. Later he shows similar behavior with the prophets. So the art went with the practice. The handpainted editions are gone ... mass production arrived, cheap editions.

"Each player rolls one die three times in a row or three dice one time. The three points visible to him indicate the corresponding virtue. If this virtue has not yet been drawn, he obtains it. If this virtue is already taken, he passes the turn. The fifty-six virtues are in this way drawn by lot.
When the drawing is finished, each player shows the unions of virtues achieved, that is to say that he associates the virtues by pairs when their accompanying numbers give 21.
The players dispose thus of the isolated virtues and of unions, the unions counting according to the highest virtue. The players compare what they have with the initial hierarchy of fifty-six virtues. The winner is the one who has brought together the highest virtues in this hierarchy."

No doubt, it existed ... if anything, the dice possibilities were studied in this time.

But Spirito used 1482 the 20 ... for what reasons is unknown. Probably he is fascinated by his 10-pairs-idea. Or do you see an indication in the text, that he used the 22?

Well, perhaps it is part of his "erotical humor", which I'll show in the following.
But a reigning and for some time dominant Tarot structure 56 + 20 is possible ... see the 20 Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo Trionfi. And look at the Minchiate, where we actually have a 20 (= 1-15 + 5 not-numbered) + 20 ( =
16-35). Have I not realized and argumented, that the Minchiate is structured according a pairing model ?

Curiously the zodiac sign "Gemini" is reigning in "Germini" (which is called according the highest numbered trump "Gemini") or the game with the later name Minchiate. Gemini = "twins", so "pairs".

Now we meet with Spirito's text another twin-model.

But let's study it.

First: I don't realize, how the author thinks how the reader comes to the chosen kings, perhaps there is an indication at the page with the wheel of Fortune? Some Latin text? Logical it would be conclude, that he used two dice with one possibility "don't ask the oracle today", then we have 21 kings instead of 20.

From the 20 Kings the reader is led to 20 other symbols. The group hopefully starts with moon-sun-star and we feel happy to find something which we know of Tarot (actually these are part of the 5 "not-numbered" elements in Minchiate), but then he throws out a group of mostly animals, some fantastic and few other symbols of other value. Some of the animals look like zodiac-signs ... I repeat the list of the kings:

Well, isn't it difficult? The fantasies are send here and there, and nobody knows, what the poet wishes to talk about. Now focus at the central part, and there is an Aha-perspective ... SEX ... the whole is about SEX. FEAR - HOPE - GELOSIA and Amore, that was Boiardo's analysis ... here the author has more sense for the details of the fears. What is SEX ... in the eyes in the not-disturbed virgin? And what are her fears? Is SEX like dog with swine, lion with horse, stag with dragon, cancer with Sirene, fish with bull?

Here is the virgin and she appears still not disturbed at the end of the row as Nr. 20 in the first group after the 20 kings:

and here appears another, rather relaxed version of virgin (a little deranged, cause she isn't virgin anymore) with the unicorn at the left side (before it was at the right) at position Nr. 19 of the second group, which I still haven't shown ...

... and this number 19 is followed by a nice looking young man with a libra in his hand at position Nr. 20 of the second group (who had been in the first group an approaching Gallo = cock with specific intentions) .

And Libra, as anybody knows, is the astrological zodiac sign for marriage.

So the whole is about the WEDDING program, already strongly indicated in the first group with the pairs "unicorn - diamond ring" and "Grifon - heart shot by arrows".

Spirito had been in Piccinino's troops, and Piccinino was the follower of Bracchio ... and so we do have here a "Montone", which without internet could drive a researcher to many stupid assertions about this symbol.

The strength of the Taurus-Bull (Nr. 7) is probably needed to overcome the Hymen, the following Gemini-scene ...

... where we see, that everybody participating is happy.

Apollo appears likely with the successful ejaculation ...

... and Jove probably indicates, that the seed has reached its goal

There are 10 zodiac signs mentioned in this second group and 7 planets and additionally Montone - Apollo - Cristallina .... Cristallina looks this way:

The only zodiac signs, which don't appear, are Leo and Pisces, [my ERROR follows , later detected, Hera reigns Aquarius]signs which in the Manilius-astrology stand for Jupiter (Jove) and his wife Hera (Juno) and Hera stands for the rules of marriage [my ERROR] ... both zodiac signs appear in the first group.

Scorpio (the sign of regeneration) opens the zodiacal series in group one, and closes it before the second virgo and libra as the final sign in group 2. The idea of original 11 signs of the zodiac was still living, as seen at the Trivulzio wall carpets.

The 20 prophets finally show the divination texts. 56 triplets each, all connected ... very similar to the Boiardo poem (for the small arcana only).
The final sentence ...

**********

Well, the 20 is used (not the 22) and it's similar to Boiardo's Tarocchi poem and Sola Busca Tarocchi and also Minchiate (pairing-model) and also to the wedding book of 1475. The Triumph of the Hymeneus ... a rather unusual chaos with erotic ideas in the background.
I've doubts, if this version is the original, at least a manuscript edition might have existed before.

This "Libro delle Sorti" is really great: thank you Huck!
Many wonderful images. It's interesting to see a German team at work in Perugia
I agree that there are analogies with the Sola-Busca tarot. Also the putti playing at the sides of the frames remind me of the style of that deck.

marco wrote:This "Libro delle Sorti" is really great: thank you Huck!
Many wonderful images. It's interesting to see a German team at work in Perugia
I agree that there are analogies with the Sola-Busca tarot. Also the putti playing at the sides of the frames remind me of the style of that deck.

Marco

hi Marco,

printers in 15th century Italy were very often Germans, so it's not really unusual.

The pairing principle is used in the Sola Busca in the way, that pictures 1-2,3-4, 5-6, 7-8 etc look at each other (1 is turned to the right, 2 is turned to the left, etc.) ... so, as if the pictures were originally part of a book project with 22 pages
In the Boiardo poem it's used in the way, that 1-3-5-7- etc. present a male hero and a vice or a wrong concept, and 2-4-6-8- etc. present a woman and a virtue, and that the vice in tercet 1 finds in opposite in tercet 2, 3 finds its opposite in 4 etc.

In Spirito's presentation the pairing principle is less obvious, perhaps it would turn clear, if it would be translated. Nonetheless it's occasional obvious.

The pairing principle is also obvious in the wedding book of 1475, at least there are 12(11) bigger figures against 12 smaller figures sorted ... compare viewtopic.php?f=11&t=418

Well, it's not complete analyzed, somehow one has to add planets and perhaps some other figures.

But the Hymenaios theme appears in the Spirito oracle book and in the 1475 wedding book, and this has to be considered, and possibly this theme is much stronger than recognized till now ... for instance the Trionfi trilogy of Carmina Burana, Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite (all of Carl Orff) deal with the Hymenaios topic. And the whole Trionfo genre very often had to do with the "journey of the bride" and in such cases the Hymenaios symbolic seems to have played a deciding role.

The "10 pairs" possibly also relate to Minchiate and possibly to the 20 trumps in Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo Tarocchi. Cause ...
Recently I wrote here about the "Precipice" in the 14 Bembo cards (which appears on 6 cards of the 14 Bembo cards) and I identified this partition in two groups of 6 and 8 cards as result of an orientation to chess iconography ... see ...

Further "20 elements" in card decks we have in the 60 cards of Johannes of Rheinfelden (1377) and in the Michelino deck (since c. 1425).

Johannes of Rheinfelden knows a deck with 5 court cards and 10 numbers in 4 suits. 5 x4 court cards very simply add to = 20.
A similar structure is used in the Michelino deck, there are 16 trumps (actually court cards) and 4 Kings, and the kings are usually the highest court cards. But - the text explicitly states, that the trumps are higher than all the other cards. How does this explain?
Well, games could be played in the manner, that suit must not be followed in a trick (then you could trump any time), or they could be played, that suit must be followed, if possible, then you're only allowed to trump, if you don't have a card of the suit, which is played as the first card in a trick. In the second - usual - version, a king is a "high card", as it usually gets a trick in the game. So it has a "high position", although any trump, even the lowest, could beat a king and could be the winner of the trick, but only, if it is played at the right opportunity. So the statement in the Martiano text has only "relative" meaning - and actually we have 20 cards of some worth in the deck.
In the later 5x14-version and 6x16-version we have trumps and court cards clearly as two different groups. The 4x14 parts in 14 (=13 + Fool) trumps and 16 court cards, with a sum of 14+16 = 30 cards of special importance (against 40 number cards). In the 5x16 version we have 16 trumps and 24 court cards, totally 16+24 = 40 cards of special importance again against 40 number cards.
And later in the Minchiate we have 40 trumps - 40 number cards - 16 cards + 1 Fool.

We see at this global perspective of really used card arrangements, that there seems to have been an interest to deal with round numbers, 10, 20, 30, 40. And we see, that "20" in these concepts wasn't really a rare feature. And till 1482, the assumed date for Spirito, any evidence of a 22 in connection to playing cards is missing ... if I don't follow Ross' assumption about an early Bolognese deck with assumed considerable success, which to the great astonishment nowhere left a real trace.

Really no trace of a 22? Well, there is something, far in the North, deep in the German forests, somebody knew something about a system with the number 22.

Conradus Müller or Conradus Molitor, also called Konrad Bollstatter, wrote or collected between 1450 - 1473 10-13 different Losbuch versions (including comments against Losbücher) of rather different quality (the complete text is known as "cgm 312"). The first of them is dated 1450 and takes 30 Folio, which is about a 1/5th of the manuscript.
In short, that, what is a Nr. 20 in the book of Spirito in 1482 is a Nr. 22 in Bollstatter's work of 1450 (whereby we don't know, if this system is from Bollstatter or just collected by him, though "it sounds", as if Bollstatter is the author).

Now it are 22 questions, 22 prophets, planets in unknown number (probably 7), 22 zodiak signs and animals (possible similar to the groups of Spirito) and 22 kings. In Spirito's work the prophets have the final word in the divination process, for Bollstatter the kings.
A not totally satisfying description is given from Sotzmann in Serapeum 1850 ... well, that's a difficult article. He distributes about 3 parts in Serapeum 4-6 1850 ...

... and proceeds then to October 1451, that's p. 305 ... but in a second notation, as it is a 2nd year ... you've to scroll down (leaving 1850) to get it (in 1851). Then are following similar jumps as above ... p. 321 etc., this in the case, you wish to read the complete article, which relates to various Losbücher.

But here are the snippets relating to Bollstatter's 22-version of 1850:

Well, the description is not satisfying, but I've nothing better. World isn't perfect in the year 2010, it would be nice to have it online.

The Kings are not the Kings of Spirito, they are not named, but given to regions and countries, between them Pope and Emperor.

About the group of Sternzeichen (zodiac) und Tierbilder (animals) Sotzmann says, that it would be be the same as number 2 ... (and "number 2" is his report about Sigismondo Fanti) and then he adds, that only the Steinbock (capricorn) is missing and some of the animals. His description of Fanti's text gives the following information:

... and it seems he means pictures like this ...

... but the total number of these seems to be 72 or at least 36. So I'm confused myself and don't know, what it means.

Would be nice, if Fanti could be online, complete, but something similar I already said.

********

It's interesting, that he speaks of a "missing capricorn" and that Spirito uses two and one as a free "capricorn" called Montone ...

According Sotzmann an undated edition is noted, which to Sotzmann is only known by a bibliographical note. This edition has according the observer a very unusual quality, that it was half made by usual letter type printing, and the other half (text with connected graphic) by woodblock printing .. with only one exception this technique hadn't been used in Italy, but only in Germany and the Netherlands (according the knowledge of Sotzmann). According this circumstance Sotzmann feels tempted to assume a very early date for the production of this book, 1473, cause around this time printing in Vicenza started.
Sotzmann's information is from "Federici Memorie Trevigiane sulla Tipografia del secolo XV. Venet 1805. 4., Page 205"

The printer was Leonardo Achates of Basel, who appeared 1472 in Venetia and worked then a longer time in Vicenza.

From this background it might be, that Spirito's work might have existed much earlier than 1482 and possibly was based on a German system, which was brought by Achates from Germany including some full page pictures, which were used for the first production ... well, nobody tells us, that this first edition had been in detail the same edition as the edition of 1482 (there are even considerable changes to the later Milanese edition, which Sotzmann knew).
There is this detail of the "missing capricorn" in Bollstatters version of 1450 and the "double capricorn" in the edition of 1482, the socalled first edition of Spirito's work ...

... and the Montone is the heraldic symbol of a location to which Spirito has a personal relation.

Somehow, as if Spirito uses the missing capricorn of the earlier for some mockery.

Well, that's rather hypothetic, but Spirito might have changed the earlier German version with a fixation of the number 22 to an Italian version with a fixation on the number 20 ... anyway, the most work had been the Italian poem's, so he had to change very much, why not also the system, if Italians were in this time experimenting with the number 20?

******
we have a strange 20, formed in the oracle book of LorenzoSpirito (1482, but possible is also 1473) ... this contains in one of his 4 groups with 20 elements

10 zodiac signs
7 Planets
and "3 additions" ... an idiosyncratic "Montone", a "Cristallina" (which should be a "heaven with stars in the night" and an "Apollo on a triumphal chariot", which should be a sun ... together this 3 might present

"Cristallina" = night or moon
"Apollo on the triumphal chariot" = day or sun
idiosyncratic "Montone = "me" (which should be LorenzoSpirito himself)

so three essential matters

In another of the 4 groups LorenzoSpirito opens with Moon-Sun-Star ... normal Tarot symbols, and then embarks with a series of chaotic animals, between them a basilisk (which usually is interpreted as belonging to the alchemical context), finishing with a virgin, which has a central role, as the whole is probably about the wedding night and the following marriage.

Then we have the "Splendor Solis", which has 22 pictures, from which ...

picture Nr. 18 might be interpreted as the Moon
picture Nr. 19 might be interpreted as the sun
(and somehow 17 might be a star)

... and from which the imagination might result, that this all is about Tarot, which also has an 18 for the Moon and for the 19 a sun and for the 17 a star. But it's clear from additional design, that

Nr. 13 is Jupiter
Nr. 14 is Mars
Nr. 15 is Sun
Nr. 16 is Venus
Nr. 17 is Mercury
and number 18 naturally moon, cause this is the chaldaic row of the planets, where Saturn is missing for the moment.
Correctly Saturn appears at Nr. 12, but as a new born child ... which somehow contradicts the expectations, which one usually has about Saturn (= old man)
Now the old man appears in Nr. 11 as an old king, who takes a bath with the aim to get new youth.

So somehow the row exists:
Nr. 11 is Saturn (old)
Nr. 12 is Saturn (young)
Nr. 13 is Jupiter
Nr. 14 is Mars
Nr. 15 is Sun
Nr. 16 is Venus
Nr. 17 is Mercury
Nr. 18 is Moon
Nr. 19 is sun (again) ... now, well, how did the Spirito-text show it? Apollo at a triumphal chariot - somehow a new sun. Although this sun is a dark sun, either ascending from night or descending to night.

Now the Spirito text tells the row in the way, that it opens with six planets (Jupiter is missing), goes then to the zodiac signs (including the Montone, the "me, the author") , breaks then to the trio Apollo=sun= Apollo on the triumphal chariot = ejaculation, Cristallina = night or heaven of stars and Jupiter, the "missing planet of above" and the "new king" = the babe, which was gotten by marital activity ... and the finishing with Virgo and Libra as signs of lucky marriage. Here the details in my article

Well, the Spirito text is probably about the usual marriage and the Hymenaios wedding ritual, but featuring elements, which also appear in the Splendor Solis. Proceeding with the analyze of Splendor Solis, we've identified the picture 11-19, but what shall picture 1-10 present? And what shall the pictures 20-22 mean?

20-22 seems easy, there are

20 = children
21 = women
22 = a sun above a city and I would assume, that this city means Augsburg, city of the Fugger

this is a finish full of harmony.

1-10 creates great difficulties, but looking at Spirito's text it seems possible to reduce the usual 12-elements-zodiac to a 10-elements-zodiac (for special intentions) ...
In the Spirito text the missing zodiac signs are Leo and Pisces ... in the Manilius astrology, which was especially favored in Ferrara (Palazzo Schifanoia) Leo is reigned by Jupiter and Pisces by Juno. Especially Juno is known as the goddess of marriage and as the whole Spirito model is about matters of love, wedding and marriage this has for the Spirito text some logic.

Well, it seems not useful to attempt a comparison between zodiac and the first 10 pictures of Splendor Solis, zodiac signs are not recognizable, the motifs are too different, maybe presenting alchemical contexts and partly biographical topics of the Fugger (?). There's just a greater structural similarity to only a part of Spirito's model.

********
The Minchiate uses also a model of 20 elements, which they included into a variant of the common Tarot model. The older Tarot model was presented at the trumps 1-15 and the positions 36-40 without numbers (also 20 elements) - a usual fool was also added. The other 20 were positioned at 16-35 and they presented 4 virtues (Prudentia and 3 theological virtues), 4 elements and 12 zodiac signs. The row of the zodiac is confused, apparently it wishes to focus on the gemini = "twin" motif, which resulted in the name Germini, possibly indicating, that the 40 cards should be seen as pairs and perhaps the 20 included elements are mirroring the 20 Tarot symbols - in an unknown way, which isn't deciphered.
Beside his 20 Kings and 20 Prophets the model of Spirito has also 20 versus 20 in his lot book model ... and the Minchiate has with its 40 number cards also 40 additional elements (leaving aside 16 court cards and a fool). So there is a structural similarity.

If we play a little bit with the elements (leaving aside 16 court cards + Fool) ...

then
20 (Sun-Moon-Star and a series of animals)
... analog to a Tarot with 20 elements in Minchiate ????

Well, we have animals Tarocks in later decks of 18th century and actually nobody knows, if these go back to older traditions. There are some standard models, which repeat in some cases, but a similarity to the 20 Spirito model is not given.
You can explore more than 10 decks at http://trionfi.com/i/ , the Animal Tarocks have an own headline.

Minchiate is first noted in 1466, 1471 and becomes an allowed game in 1477 ... but we have no information, which sort of deck this was, neither for its structure of for its content.

Spirito's scheme appeared first 1473 (perhaps)/1482 ... and it's a not clear point, if he had taken it from older versions, possibly lot books in Germany (Bollstatter 1450)